“I hope to find a way to keep this small, beautiful game alive.”
It has been 10 years since the creation of “Monument Valley”.
From the beautiful graphics, to the narrative design, to the minimalist gameplay, many elements jointly contributed to the success of “Monument Valley”. However, there's something special about its core mechanics that's especially fascinating: the sheer joy that comes when players first experience the game's visually dislocated puzzles, watching reality transform before their eyes. “I spent 10 years looking for a game similar to Monument Valley and found nothing,” said Danny Gray, chief creative officer of developer Ustwo.
Gray joined Ustwo in 2013 as a member of the development team. In 2024, the company refurbished its London office. Ustwo adopts a hybrid office model, and many employees do not go to the office every day. However, on the 10th anniversary of the launch of “Monument Valley”, the place was very lively, and employees all smiled and wished each other a happy anniversary.
“No matter in the past, present or future, it is always difficult to create a game with unique mechanics.” Gray pointed out, “I just recently talked with a few friends about Viewfinder, a game whose main gameplay is to take pictures and visual dislocation. (puzzle game), when you are imagining a game, it is like finding a mine that continuously produces gold. Sometimes you may suddenly have a sudden inspiration and discover an almost perfect core mechanism immediately, but this is quite difficult for most. In this case, the game is a combination of all the mechanics.”
What's less known is that while geometric puzzles are one of Monument Valley's most recognizable features, Ustwo didn't intend them to be this way from the beginning. “In the original idea, it was just an isometric perspective puzzle game. The maze would not be presented in a layered form, and players could not find their way between the layers.” Gray recalled, “Looking back now, That’s the great thing about Monument Valley. We stumbled upon the beauty of geometric puzzles and built on them within a year.”
“At that time, most of us were under 30 years old and were willing to work crazy overtime to catch up. If we were to make it from scratch now, the development cycle of the game might reach 2 years!”
“Monument Valley” debuted on the iOS platform in April 2014 and has been downloaded more than 160 million times across all platforms to date. This game has won multiple industry awards such as DICE and BAFTA, and will be released on Netflix together with its sequel later this year. According to Gray, Ustwo has been trying to analyze why Monument Valley was so successful for years, but has never been able to find a definite answer.
“I think the most reasonable explanation is that for development teams, just making a good game is often not enough. The quality of the game itself has to be good enough, but it also has to be in the right place at the right time. If you It’s not healthy to attribute the success of a product solely to how great it is.”
Talking about the ecology of the mobile game industry 10 years ago, Gray pointed out that although the app store was no longer a new thing at the time, games that were innovative enough could still become famous in one fell swoop, and the market was not as crowded as it is today. Additionally, the way players discovered games during that era was also different than it is today. “In the past, people were used to browsing the App Store to see what new games were released. But now, after buying a new mobile phone, they will only download one or two games such as TikTok, Instagram, and Candy Crush Saga, or browse various games. When I see game ads on social media, I download them directly.”
“Ten years ago, games like Monument Valley could reach a wide audience through mainstream media, and people were eager to find some beautiful games that they could play on their mobile phones that would allow them to escape reality for a while. That’s what I wrote for Monument Valley “The reason why I'm excited about “Valley 3″: It's like a sanctuary in your pocket. You don't have to worry about money, ads, in-app purchases, etc., and you can enjoy the wonderful experience brought by the game.”
Ustwo has never announced “Monument Valley 3” to the public, but considering the current market environment, independent-style paid mobile games will obviously encounter greater challenges. On the other hand, the first generation of “Monument Valley” was criticized for its short process and relatively simple gameplay when it was released, but these features have now become selling points that attract players, allowing the game to gain more space.
“We’ll have to try it to find out, right?” Gray said. “I think people are more hungry than ever to play these types of games. I remember before Monument Valley was released, I had a phone call with a business partner, The other party simply couldn't understand our idea – only a 2-hour process, no in-app purchases, no rankings, no ads… Well, why make this game? “
“I think that’s why I’m a little bit resistant to data — if you just follow the data, you’re going to make something that’s very similar to what’s already on the market. If we had done this 10 years ago, Monument Valley ” wouldn’t happen. The world is in a much worse place now than it was in 2014, so I think people are going to need a good escapist game more than they did back then.”
Gray added that subscription services such as Netflix Games and Apple Arcade will help “Monument Valley 3” reach more players. “Subscription services allow us to have no direct value exchange with players.” He pointed out, “Ten years ago, maybe 100 million people were really willing to spend a few dollars to buy a 2-hour game, but now under the subscription model, Players can play a lot of different games without spending any money and can choose from them. If someone wants to play “Monument Valley 3″, that's great, and those players won't complain because they think the process is too short.”
Ustwo has worked with teams at Apple Arcade and Netflix to launch games such as Assemble with Care, Alba: Into the Wild and Desta: Between Memories through the subscription service. However, Gray emphasized that he hopes that the two business models of paid downloads and subscriptions can coexist.
“In terms of the subscription model, you're still trying to retain users, so you have to change the way you make games a little bit. Of course, given the direction the App Store is going, I think the subscription model is worth trying, and it makes games like Monument Valley Games like this continue to exist… In today's mobile app stores, paid games are out, and may even disappear completely.”
“Subscription services allow us to have no direct value exchange with players, so players will not judge a game based on its length. If you browse Netflix, you will not sigh after watching a certain movie or TV series: 'Oh my gosh, this is so short!' You're just going to watch other shows, right? The subscription service is really good for us.”
Gray said that in the game industry, many people are used to evaluating the value of a product based on the length of the process, which is frustrating. He points out that a movie doesn't get better because it's older. “During the development of the original Monument Valley, we often asked ourselves: ‘Our team is small, what would happen if we didn’t make a 100-hour stacking game, but instead carefully crafted a 2-hour game? '” Gray said, “After hard work and a lot of optimization work, we have made every level feel fresh to the players, making them feel that all the content is very worthwhile.”
“So I hope to find a way to keep games with short processes alive. On the Steam store, some 'small but beautiful' games are popular with players, but I feel that on mobile platforms, this type of The game is disappearing.”
In the past 10 years, the mobile game market has undergone tremendous changes, and Ustwo has also undergone many changes. Gray said that he was not involved in the development of the new “Monument Valley” work, but that a group of new developers would be in charge. “The team has more people because only in this way can we create super fresh content without making players feel the same.”
According to Gray, “Monument Valley 3” will absorb the essence of the first two games, add new things on this basis, and change the art style so that it will still feel very fresh in 2024. In terms of creative methods, Ustwo will continue its consistent principles to ensure that creators can inject personal stories and emotions into the content they create, making them more authentic.
“Monument Valley 2” explores the parent-child relationship because some of the developers at the time had just had children. At Ustwo, every game is intrinsically connected to the personal experiences of team members. “Alba: Into the Wild wouldn’t be possible without David Fernandez and Kirsty Kitchen, who bring a true Spanish flavor to the game, and I’m so proud of Desta: Memoria. “I think it's become part of the studio's DNA since then: we always give our creators full credit and encourage them to inject their own personality into the game.”
Whether making games or running a business, Ustwo takes sustainability seriously. “I attended a GDC roundtable and talked with other panelists about how game companies should balance talent and profits and make the two reinforce each other. We have very low employee turnover, which means we can focus on development , You don’t have to take time to recruit people, and you don’t have to spend money to work with headhunters… Therefore, we need to treat our employees well and provide them with good benefits.”
Gray also mentioned the studio's profit-sharing system. In the past, Ustwo has publicly stated that it hopes to contribute to the ecosystem of the gaming industry and help the next generation of developers. “Gen Z is the first generation to care more about their employer’s values than their paycheck, and that doesn’t mean less pay for employees, but it’s a real shift in what people’s priorities are.”
Gray points out that platforms and other partners can also benefit from the splash effect of Ustwo's policy, because it helps them make a good impression on players. For Ustwo, running a company that values balance, sustainability and truly cares about its employees is a win-win-win situation.
“We have never laid off employees and have been growing steadily, which is due to our independence. If we were acquired by other companies, we would probably be forced to expand at a faster rate.” Gray said, “Our The number of employees has grown from 8 to 40 in 10 years, the team is small, and now we are making three games at the same time.”
“Ustwo is a small but well-run company that cares about its employees, always strives to build valuable products, and cares about maintaining the public image of its partners. Plus, we have a very popular game and its sequel. You don’t have to bear huge financial pressure.”
According to Gray, the other two games Ustwo is developing are completely different from “Monument Valley 3”, and he himself is still working on 6 different drafts. According to Gray, Ustwo plans to expand its business and try to create a wider range of games for more platforms. “In the next wave after Monument Valley 3, we will further step out of our comfort zone in terms of categories and platforms.”
Gray mentioned Desta: Between Memories, describing it as the “most daring” game Ustwo has made to date. “We're pushing our own envelope. We often talk about how to democratize certain genres. For example, turn-based tactical games turn off some players because they're usually space or fantasy. So what if you make a game that's based on a common genre? What will happen to games with human protagonists? All in all, the idea is to humanize a category that may be boring to a certain group of players, and this is likely to continue.”
Going forward, Gray said he hopes to provide more resources to provide insight into how Ustwo grew from a small team without any structure or HR processes to a well-run 40-person company. “I really want to pass this knowledge on. We're very lucky that when 10 years after Monument Valley came out, the company is still growing steadily. Monument Valley is a great game, but for us, it's also luck important.”
Gray hopes Ustwo can weather the current industry storm and do its best to be a good example. “As the company's first game, the success of “Monument Valley” is indeed a great achievement, but I think continuing to make good games is an even greater achievement. Over the past 10 years, we have never stopped and launched one VR game after another. “Land's End”, “Monument Valley”, “Assemble with Care”, “Alba: Wild Adventures” and “Desta: Between Memories” are all of reliable quality.”
“No one can predict the future. Only when a game is of good enough quality and appears in the right place at the right time to become a widely discussed topic will it become a sensation… 10 years ago, “Monument” It's impossible to plan for the success of “Monument Valley” in advance, but we will continue to create truly great games and hope that some of them will be as successful as “Monument Valley.”
This article is compiled from: the-accidental-inimitable-success-of-monument-valley
Original title: “The accidental, inimitable success of Monument Valley”
Original author: Marie Dealessandri